Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Department of Medicine, University of Patras, Rion, Greece.
Transl Psychiatry. 2024 Feb 20;14(1):104. doi: 10.1038/s41398-024-02815-0.
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common cause of inherited intellectual disabilities and the most prevalent monogenic cause of autism. Although the knockout (KO) of the Fmr1 gene homolog in mice is primarily used for elucidating the neurobiological substrate of FXS, there is limited association of the experimental data with the pathophysiological condition in humans. The use of Fmr1 KO rats offers additional translational validity in this regard. Therefore, we employed a multi-level approach to study the behavioral profile and the glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission status in pathophysiology-associated brain structures of Fmr1 KO rats, including the recordings of evoked and spontaneous field potentials from hippocampal slices, paralleled with next-generation RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). We found that these rats exhibit hyperactivity and cognitive deficits, along with characteristic bidirectional glutamatergic and GABAergic alterations in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. These results are coupled to affected excitability and local inhibitory processes in the hippocampus, along with a specific transcriptional profile, highlighting dysregulated hippocampal network activity in KO rats. Overall, our data provide novel insights concerning the biobehavioral profile of FmR1 KO rats and translationally upscales our understanding on pathophysiology and symptomatology of FXS syndrome.
脆性 X 综合征 (FXS) 是最常见的遗传性智力障碍原因,也是最常见的单基因自闭症原因。尽管敲除(KO)小鼠中的 Fmr1 基因同源物主要用于阐明 FXS 的神经生物学基础,但实验数据与人类的病理生理状况的相关性有限。Fmr1 KO 大鼠的使用为此提供了额外的转化有效性。因此,我们采用多水平方法研究了与病理生理学相关的大脑结构中 Fmr1 KO 大鼠的行为特征以及谷氨酸能和 GABA 能神经传递状态,包括从海马切片中记录诱发和自发场电位,同时进行下一代 RNA 测序(RNA-seq)。我们发现这些大鼠表现出多动和认知缺陷,以及前额叶皮层和海马中特征性的双向谷氨酸能和 GABA 能改变。这些结果与海马中的兴奋性和局部抑制过程受到影响以及特定的转录谱相关,突出了 KO 大鼠中海马网络活动的失调。总体而言,我们的数据提供了关于 FmR1 KO 大鼠的生物行为特征的新见解,并在病理生理学和 FXS 综合征的症状学方面提高了我们的理解。
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